I've received requests for recommendations and nominations via the internet, which I was happy to provide. I think the key is to do so in a relatively private area, one where most if not all participants can be trusted to demonstrate good behavior and judgment. I'd agree that doing so in an open for...

Oh, really? So Bandai was ripping off B5? The use of an identical font face hardly qualifies as a rip-off. The Serpentine font face has been around a lot longer than either Babylon 5 or Gundam. A lot of companies use Helvetica for their logo, but that doesn't mean they are ripping each other off, e...

Neil Gaiman wrote his thoughts on this case: http://splashpage.mtv.com/2008/11/24/neil-gaiman-on-the-obscenity-of-manga-collector-christopher-handleys-trial/ I know many of us take our hobby (and any threats to it) very seriously, which makes this case "headline material" to us. But unless...

The name of the font face is Serpentine. It's also the same font face used in much of Babylon 5's typography.

No can do on sending you the font, though. It's a commercial font face, so to send you the font files would be piracy.

-- Keith

Regardless of how one may feel about the alleged subject matter and/or the legality of this case - and the discussions on various forums would suggest that people have plenty of thoughts, conflicting though they may be - my personal fear is that if the case results in a successful prosecution, it wi...

Gunota was one of the rare few sites who presented the information in a completely neutral manner. It was refreshingly free of soap boxes, axe grinding, and internet drama. This, in addition to their timely and comprehensive info, is why I appreciated Gunota so much. It appears that several sites ar...

I've always loved that the general theme of the Macross universe is one of optimism and exploration, both of the outer space and cultural kind. The opening segment depicting the routes of the various colonization fleets was pretty darn cool. As for the characters, so far I see a stuck-up idol singer...

I should note that I was a web designer, and not part of the marketing department, so my understanding of the situation is based largely on what others have (or have not) told me. I did have close working relations with the Gundam brand manager at the time, but that's really about it. That said, to ...

There's no question that Cartoon Network didn't have the level of understanding of the Gundam franchise that we have: namely, that each Gundam show is a distinct entity and should be judged separately. As others have noted, Cartoon Network took the performance of the overall Gundam brand as an indic...

I agree with Kavik that Cartoon Network's handling of the show certainly didn't help matters at all. That said, Gundam toys in general (post-Wing) just weren't performing in the marketplace prior to the SEED broadcast. I'm not convinced that better care on Cartoon Network's part would've generated a...

I was employed at Bandai America at the time SEED was being broadcast on Cartoon Network. I certainly won't claim to know all the details and figures regarding the Bandai/Cartoon Network agreement for SEED. However, what I wrote was based on what I learned from the Gundam brand manager during my emp...

As I explained in a previous post, the way Cartoon Network assigns a time slot to a show has a direct correlation to how much money Cartoon Network stands to make off the broadcast deal. By the time SEED was scheduled to go on the air, the Gundam franchise was in steep decline - most of the money in...

The number of episodes per disc is frequently mandated by the licensor. That's the main reason why BEI was forced to release Blue Submarine No. 6 as one episode per disc, even though BEI told Sunrise that it would hurt sales. Why do they do this? It's a combination of thinking that what works in Jap...

Back when I was employed at Bandai, their video game division asked for my input in distributing UC.net (a Gundam MMO) in the N. American market. The game was so poor that I refused to lend it any support. When asked why, I explained that just because I'm a Gundam fan doesn't mean I'll buy any Gunda...

I don't believe for a minute that, if a company releases an A+ product, there will be zero piracy of the title. Piracy isn't an all-or-nothing deal. Naturally, there are cheapskates who will pirate no matter what, and there are boy scouts who buy 99% of the products they own and shun piracy as uneth...

Admittedly, Photoshop isn't the best example, in that its price point is several orders of magnitude higher than the average anime title, and its economy of scale is significantly different compared to the average anime title on DVD. Still, the point that I was trying to make is that a product can t...

Adobe Photoshop is pirated so heavily that the ratio of illegal to legal copies is estimated at 10 to 1. The combination of the outrageous price tag and the wonders of the internet make Photoshop an ideal candidate for piracy. And yet Adobe has been doing rather well for itself. A company doesn't ha...

So the business practice that the Japanese entertainment companies engage in has a formal name. I learn something new every day! Given that this 'mark-to-market' was one of the reasons why Geneon USA closed shop, and that BEI is barely hanging by a thread, I'd say that the backfire is happening righ...

This is a dilemma that even the mainstream entertainment companies haven't figured out - and they have an army of MBAs wringing their skulls trying to find an answer. What makes people think we fans will come up with a compelling business solution? If any of us could come up with a useful suggestion...

...isn't the issue right now is that those said overseas companies are dwindling. If the anime studios do intend on keeping those market, they would have to find ways to distribute them that is more effective than the current model. That's the 'if,' isn't it? The concern shared by the Japanese ente...